Nano-engineering the Antimicrobial Spectrum of Lantibiotics: Activity of Nisin against Gram Negative Bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Lantibiotics, bacteria-sourced antimicrobial peptides, are very good candidates for effective and safe food additives. Among them, nisin is already approved by the EU and FDA, and has been used in food preservation for the past 40 years. Now, there is a possibility and strong interest to extend its applicability to biomedicine for designing innovative alternatives to antibiotics. The main obstacle is, however, its naturally narrow spectrum of antimicrobial activity, focused on Gram positive bacteria. Here we demonstrate broadening nisin's spectrum to Gram negative bacteria using a nano-engineering approach. After binding nisin molecules to the surface of gold nano-features, uniformly deposited on spherical carbon templates, we created a nanocomposite with a high density of positively charg

SUBMITTER: Vukomanovic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5489483 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature